재미 | Korea’s place in the minds of American people

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Korea’s
place in the minds of American people

KANCC (Korean American National Coordinating Council)

Primarily due to the tumultuous international relationship
existing between the United States and Korea, both South and North, in the past
seven decades, the general perception of American people on the people and
countries in Korean peninsula is complex and, to say the least, often
misrepresented.

The first written record on the ethnicity of Korean people
was known to be found nearly 5,000 years ago. They occupied a significant part
of what is now known as Manchuria and extended to the current Korean peninsula
to the south. Although they had their own distinct culture and language,
records are abundant showing the evidence of their influence and contribution
to the culture and civilization of its Chinese neighbor; for example, it is
generally accepted by the Chinese language scholars that their symbolic Chinese
characters were developed by the ancient Koreans.

However, Korean’s geopolitical location being surrounded by,
even to this date, powerful and ambitious superpower neighbors, China,
Manchuria, Russia, Japan, United States, and Mongolia in the past, has had
resulted in the continuation of the troublesome history of Korean people in the
past thousands of years. This, in a way, contributed to the formulation of the
characteristics of Korean people who distrusts its neighbors and at the same
time depend on its neighbors in the internal struggles among themselves. It has
been said that including the attacks by the Japanese pirates, the country of
Korea had been invaded by its neighbors once every other year in its history!

On the contrary, history is clear that in its long
existence, Koreans have, never even once, invaded other countries.

The last foreign invasion of Korea was in 1910, when Japan
colonialized the peninsula by abolishing the Lee Dynasty, the last feudal
regime existing on the peninsula. Their harsh rule on Korean people lasted for
36 years, when in 1945 the WW II ended with their defeat and resultant
occupation of northern half by the Russians and the south by the Americans; the
beginning of the cold war and the current fundamental problem of Koreans; the
appearance of two Koreas, North Korea (DPRK) and South Korea (ROK) and
subsequent disastrous Korean War (1950-1953) between them, which in reality was
a war of proxy between the cold war superpowers. The immediate effects of the
war was near complete devastation of the peninsula with the war-death estimated
to be 1.7 million.

However, the long- term effect of the war was much more
significant and tragic to the Koreans.
Since it was an armistice at Panmunjom between the U.S. and the DPRK and
was never followed by the peace treaty, the enmity between the north and south
as well as the north and U.S. lasted to this date over a 70 year period. It
also provided reasons for the predominant influence of the U.S. on the south,
militarily, politically and sometimes economically. To this date, even the
war-time operational control of south Korean military is under the U.S.
commander. Needless to say, its effect on North Korea was direct and harsh.
Isolations, embargoes, sanctions have caused the emergence of an extremely
tight socialist society with a strong military emphasis and political
uniformity and eventually a nuclear ability with delivery capability.

It goes without saying, therefore that the only country that
has solutions to this multi-level problems in Korean peninsula is the United
States:

We appeal to American people to urge their government to
relieve sanctions, embargos, and any other economic isolations against North
Korea;

We appeal to American people to urge their government to
normalize diplomatic relations with North Korea and establish peace treaty with
them;

We appeal to American people to urge their government to
cease any military maneuvers in the vicinity of North Korea;

We appeal to American
people to urge their government to nullify the travel bans between us and North
Korea;

We appeal to American people to urge their government to
resume the summit meeting between us and North Korea, following up Singapore
and Hanoi;

Lastly, we appeal to American people to urge their
government to remove our military presence in South Korea, and respect and
fully recognize the sovereignty of South Korea, Republic of Korea.